CHAP. VII.

Man considered as the Vicegerent of GoD upon Earth. Some of his Duties connected with a Knowledge of the Nature of Animals. How far Inferior Creatures have been created for the Use of Man. On the Relations which Animals bear to each other, and the Checks which restrain their Numbers within due Limits.

MAN has evidently been created the vicegerent of GOD upon earth: and to him has been given the management, direction, and improvement, of all that it contains, save of the elements, of the seasons, and of those general, secret, and inherent laws, which are necessary for the well-being, and indispensable to the government, of the world; and which, if committed to the hands of one less perfect than the Divinity, might be affected by his frailty, and rendered liable to the most fatal disasters. His duties, then, are of the highest and most glorious nature :

and, under such a conviction, he will not stand, like an ideot, asking the silly and impious question, "Why he was created?" but will immediately set about the business of his sublime and immortal career. It is neither in his natural, nor in his depraved state, however, that man is capable of comprehending the grand designs of OMNIPOTENCE concerning himself; for, as an eminent philosopher of these times has well observed,

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a state of sloth, and not of restlessness and activity, seems evidently to be the natural state of man: and this latter disposition could not have been generated but by the strong goad of necessity; though it might afterwards be continued by habit, and the new associations that were formed from it, the spirit of enterprise, and the spirit of glory." It is only when his mind is improved and enlightened by the aid of science and the study of nature, and his heart is softened by the feelings of benevolence, that he can have any conception of the

* MALTHUS on Population, 3d ed. vol. i. p. 110.

grand scheme of creation, or the extent of

his own powers.

In those moments of despondency, indeed, which man is heir to, when the darkness of imperfect vision, and the weakness of his frailty, are upon him, moments that visit alike the palace and the cottage, he may be inclined to imagine that he was created merely for the sport of some wonderful, incomprehensible, Power; seeing that he is continually played upon by outward circumstances, over which he has little or no control; and, that all animated bodies, together with his own, have within them the principles of certain and irremediable decay, from which there is no possibility of escape; and, that reflections on his own past life, and a contemplation of the history of nations, only serve to prove how vain are all the prospects of any continued happiness, or perfectibility, in this state of existence!

But he who gains the heights of pure virtue, and true philosophy, leaves the pains of anxiety, and the gloom of despondency, far behind him; his eye is fixed

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on the sun of truth, and his heart leaps with the excess of its joy; and, even though it may not be in his power wholly to escape from the region of doubt and error, still one would imagine, that as man cannot clearly see nor demonstrate any thing, much less the first cause and final object of his being, he should not spend his few transitory hours in seeking to know what must for ever remain hid from mortal ken; but, endeavouring to obtain all the knowledge the measure of his ability and extent of his faculties will permit, patiently and humbly wait till the veil, which at present darkens his vision, shall be rent, and the wonders of creation explained by a nearer approach to the DIVINITY. In the mean while it seems reasonable to conclude, that unless a man endeavours to render himself worthy of higher attainments in a superior state of existence, by employing his time here, in this dawn, this opening, of life, in the investigation of truth, and in the practice of virtue; it can scarcely be supposed that his soul will be sufficiently expanded or fitted

to receive the fulness of wisdom, and the perfection of knowledge, after death.

Viewing man as the vicegerent of GoD upon earth, both in regard to his relations with other animals, and to the cultivation. and utmost improvement of the land which has been given to him for an inheritance ;a view of the subject which the study of Natural History, in its most extended limits, and if rightly pursued, can scarcely fail to give, it must be allowed that he can never fully comprehend his various duties, and the extent of his power, in the creation, as lord of the whole, until he has ascertained the true nature of animals, and the properties of natural bodies. His greatest happiness will then consist in his endeavours to resemble the DIVINE ORIGINAL to the fullest extent of his power, by putting in practice the benevolence of His nature, and by using all the means that are given him for wise and useful purposes.

How far all inferior animals have been created, or expressly formed, for the use of man, a doctrine that has been pretty gene